Realization of Similar Norms in Different Environments

This paper explores the strategies of norms realization. It examines fertility patterns of a group of female immigrants, leveraging their quasi-random allocation to the U.S. and Israel in 1989-1991. The question is whether the immigrants in both destinations realize imported norms and how the realization is interacted with labor market outcomes. Findings reveal immigrants target similar childbearing profiles in both countries, consistent with origin-determined norms. However, their paths diverge in labor market engagement. Immigrants in Israel show uniform postnatal labor force participation. Conversely, U.S. immigrants demonstrate segregation: college-educated hard-working mothers versus low-educated less-working mothers. I provide a simple model that interprets this segregation as the effect of economic opportunities difference between the two countries.